It might not be the most glamorous hill, but it's the one that Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) has vowed to die on. President Obama, however, isn't going to give him that chance.

Nelson is perhaps the Senate's fiercest protector of subsidies for student lending institutions, which, not coincidentally, are an engine of job growth in Nebraska. He has vowed to block any effort to reduce those subsidies. And given that Democrats have 58 members and generally need 60 to break a GOP filibuster, he can enforce his will on his colleagues.

An agreement struck between the president and House and Senate negotiators won't give Nelson that chance. A process known as "reconciliation" allows budgetary measures to be moved through the Senate with a simple majority, rather than 60. Multiple congressional sources say that congressional Democrats have decided to use reconciliation to go after student-lending subsidies, specifically to get around Nelson.

Student loans were once under government conservativeship, but when Bush got in office he threw this to the banks, who then, of course, jacked up rates on students and families.

I think the public needs to know exactly what the current student loan program does and why it is such a giveaway to the banks. I think people don´t know, probably because most of the news coverage is about whether or not a bill will pass rather than what it means.

Simply, the current system forces all student loans to be made through banks. The banks charge a medium range of interest--not terribly high, but not terribly low, either. The government GUARANTEES the loans so there is absolutely no risk for the banks.

During Clinton´s term, the student loan plan allowed universities to offer much lower loans by borrowing directly from the government. Students did not have to go through a bank and this shaved 2 or 3 percentage points off the cost of the loan. Neither did it cost the government anything since the money was repaid. But when the Bushies came in, they forced all loans to go through banks, jacking up the interest rates and guaranteeing a profit with no risk for the banks. The government still backed all the loans.

It is a classic example of how lobbying creates direct subsidies for businesses who win their lobbying efforts.

The above is exactly what the effects of lobbying does. Who profited off of this? Not the government, nor the students, but banks. And Nelson's main contributors are the banks.

At this time it is a lose-lose situation for Nelson, especially in these times. Siding with the banks is a bad idea, just look at the mortgage mess and who is the main culprit in that? And lastly....

Without a requirement for 60 votes in the Senate, it's likely the subsidies to voracious student lenders will be trimmed considerably, since there won't be any reason to accommodate the banks' defenders in the GOP -- and Bad Nelson. Most Democrats view the huge federal subsidies, alongside the 100% federal guarantee, as one of the most egregious examples of corporate welfare: banks skim federal money that if allocated to student loans directly would get lots more people educated and lifted out of poverty.

I read this Washington Post article this morning and just said, "Well, he has much to be sorry about, but it is too late." He was the key principle that signed off on the torture memos for the Bush Administration. He has legitimate gripe and should feel used by that administration, but being sorry at this time means nothing. Look where we are at? Sorry? Too bad, so sad, too late.

It was, in the private room of a public restaurant, the kind of joyless judgment that some friends and associates say the jurist arrived at well before the public release of four additional memos last week and the resulting uproar that has engulfed Washington. One of the documents, dated Aug. 1, 2002, offered a helpfully narrow definition of torture to the CIA and soon became known as the "Bybee memo," because it bore his signature.

"I've heard him express regret at the contents of the memo," said a fellow legal scholar and longtime friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity while offering remarks that might appear as "piling on." "I've heard him express regret that the memo was misused. I've heard him express regret at the lack of context -- of the enormous pressure and the enormous time pressure that he was under. And anyone would have regrets simply because of the notoriety."

That notoriety worsened this week as the documents -- detailing the acceptable application of waterboarding, "walling," sleep deprivation and other procedures the Bush administration called "enhanced interrogation methods" -- prompted calls from human rights advocates and other critics for criminal investigations of the government lawyers who generated them.

Of the three former Justice Department lawyers associated with the memos, the public's attention has focused particularly harshly on Bybee because of his position as a sitting federal judge; John C. Yoo, who largely wrote the Bybee memo, returned to academic life, and Steven G. Bradbury, who signed three memos, resumed private practice at the end of the Bush administration.

Well, the public has a right to question Bybee. He is a sitting judge and as we know, judges make decisions and we can not help but question Bybee because his decision of signing off on these torture memos was a bad one. A very bad one indeed.

But for me, Bybee is only a low member of a very high totem pole. This is all about the Bush White House and how they crafted the use of torture to sell to the public. This all stinks of high heaven, but hang on, the best is still yet to come from all of this.

The Department of Veterans Affairs says a fourth person exposed to dirty equipment at its hospitals has tested positive for HIV.

The test result revealed Friday is the second positive HIV test from a patient who was treated at a VA hospital in Miami. The VA is investigating problems with cleaning medical equipment used for colonoscopies as well as ear, nose and throat exams at three of its Southeast hospitals.

Positive HIV tests have also been reported from patients at VA clinics in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Augusta, Ga.

The agency says it doesn't yet know if the HIV and hepatitis cases are related to its treatment, but it has warned almost 11,000 veterans treated at those hospitals to get blood tests.

The VA also increased the number of patients who have hepatitis C to 20.

The premise with all the revelation of what really happened with the Bush Administration and torture, and that this country cannot withstand the truth is utter bullshit.

WE CAN WALK AND CHEW GUM AT THE SAME TIME.

We, Americans do it every day.

President Obama and his administration tackle various problems on behalf of the American public daily, this pushed premise that having the final truth come out about the Bush Administration and what really happened in regards to torture is something all of us need to come to grip with.

This country is a land of morals and values. We made the conscious decision that we were going to walk the high road and denounced torture. The Bush Administration repeatedly told us, to our faces, that the United States of America does not torture, but as all the documented information is quickly coming out, again we were lied to.

It is hard for the Republicans to spin this. Don't believe me? Watch Liz Cheney on MSNBC with Norah O'Donnell and her grasping of straws to defend her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney. After watching this, one just has to shake their head.

Then we have Dana Perino, former White House Press Secretary, stating that this is Obama's mess.

I don't agree.

The Republicans nor Barack Obama can have it both ways.

The Obama Administration cannot come out and state that CIA investigators, authorized to perform torture techniques will not be prosecuted, then turn a blind eye as evidence mounts and not prosecute those that gave the final command to break the law. Can't do it. Can't have it both ways.

The Republicans, GOP can't go around in the media stating that these techniques made us safe as a nation, when there is no documented proof to back it up. Nor can the Republicans go around and state that releasing these documents, pictures, videos is not for the good of the country, when they were behind it lock, stock and barrel.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

In other words, it just was not Abu Ghraib. Meaning this reinforces that this was a plot, plan from the White House on down. The Bush White House used the excuse that Abu Ghraib was an isolated incident, well tell the spinmeisters to get ready to work overdrive, more to come....

The Obama administration agreed late Thursday to release dozens of photographs depicting alleged abuse by U.S. personnel during the Bush administration of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At least 44 pictures will be released by May 28 -- making public for the first time images of what the military investigated as abuse that took place at facilities other than the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Defense officials would not say exactly what is contained in the photos, but said they are concerned that the release could incite a backlash in the Middle East.

The photos are apparently not as shocking as the photographs from the Abu Ghraib investigation that became a lasting symbol of U.S. mistakes in Iraq. But some show military service members intimidating or threatening detainees by pointing weapons at them. Military officers have been court-martialed for threatening detainees at gunpoint.

"This will constitute visual proof that, unlike the Bush administration's claim, the abuse was not confined to Abu Ghraib and was not aberrational," said Amrit Singh, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which obtained the agreement as part of a long-running legal battle for documents related to Bush-era anti-terror policies.

The photo release decision comes as President Obama is already trying to quell a drive to investigate Bush-era anti-terror practices. But now the photos and a series of other possible disclosures stemming from the ACLU lawsuit threatens to fuel the already explosive controversy.

Again, Obama is not on the side of all of this. He wants consensus and to move on, but with all these lawsuits out there, the torture memos released, various reports, it is hard to move on.

For all the Faux Hate over President Obama's commencement speech at Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, they sure are lining up to see him.

Notre Dame is using lotteries to determine which faculty members will receive tickets to President Barack Obama's commencement speech May 17.

Registrar Harold Pace says faculty have been allotted 415 seats in the Joyce Center, but demand has been high among the 1,200 full-time faculty members eligible to seek tickets. So Pace says the dean of each college will decide how to allot its share.

The College of Arts & Letters conducted a lottery Monday. The business and law schools also are planning lotteries.

The Joyce Center will accommodate a total of about 12,000 for Obama's appearance, which has been criticized by some Catholics because of his support for abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research.

But it is the Pat Buchanan's of this world that don't deal with reality well.

Cheney's defense of her father is both sickening and laughable. She claims that the techniques used couldn't be torture because we tested them on our own people "and we don't torture our own people." She again and again claims torture was effective without giving a single shred of evidence. Norah, quite rightly, takes her to task, and the interview gets very heated.

First dog Bo is a "kind of crazy" puppy who likes to chew on people's feet, Michelle Obama told children visiting the White House on Thursday.

The first lady is spending a lot of time walking and training the 6-month-old Portuguese water dog who became a member of the president's family last week.

An energetic breed, Bo plays well into the night, as he did on Wednesday.

"It was like 10 o'clock. Everybody was asleep and we hear all this barking and jumping around," Mrs. Obama said. "The president and I came out and we thought somebody was out there. And it was just Bo. He was playing with his ball. And it was like there was another person in the house.

"He's kind of crazy, but he's still a puppy. So he likes to play a lot," she said.

The dog, unveiled last week after months of speculation, was a gift to Obama daughters Malia and Sasha.

"He loves to chew on people's feet," Mrs. Obama divulged to more than 100 children invited to a program marking the annual Take Your Child to Work Day.

For me, personally, I have been paying my card on time and extra and the cc company still raised the interest rate and STILL lowered my credit limit.

The credit card companies are bogus and Wall Street and CONGRESS have been on their side for YEARS. All I can type is, "it's about time to protect us."

Obama said he wants legislation that will prevent consumers from facing a sudden, surprising rise in fees. He said credit-card companies must publish their forms in plainspoken language. The president said companies must make it easier for people to do comparison shopping and said there must be greater enforcement so that violators feel the "full weight" of the law.

Obama and some congressional leaders are particularly focused on what they consider to be abusive and deceptive practices that squeeze people into paying much higher fees or interest rates than anticipated. Both the House and Senate are considering a credit card "bill of rights" to limit the ability of credit-card companies to raise interest rates on existing balances and to require greater disclosure.

At issue is how to protect consumers, particularly in a severe economic downturn, while not imposing the kind of rules that could make it harder for banks to offer credit or that put credit out of reach for many borrowers. Industry advocates are wary of those consequences and hopeful Obama will listen.

Ben Bernanke and former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson pressed Bank of America, Chief Executive, Kenneth Lewis not to reveal the purchase of Merrill Lynch. In other words, trying to keep the real exposure of the economy under wraps.

In a testimony before New York's attorney general Andrew Cuomo in February, Lewis told prosecutors that he believed Paulson and Bernanke were instructing him to keep silent about deepening financial difficulties at Merrill, which BofA acquired in January.

Lewis testified that the government wanted him to remain silent while the two sides negotiated government funding to help BofA absorb Merrill and its losses, the paper said, citing transcripts of the testimony.

A representative of Cuomo questioned Lewis about his failure to disclose Merrill's fourth-quarter losses, which eventually totaled $15.84 billion, according to the paper.

Lewis said he was told by Bernanke and Paulson that the BofA-Merrill deal needed to be completed, otherwise it would "impose a big risk to the financial system" of the United States as a whole, according to the paper.

This is another reason why the public is highly skeptical of Wall Street and the continuation of dumping money in these banks.

If this is true and note this statement was taken under oath, Bernanke should be told to empty his office and leave to greener pastures.

Yes, although former Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice told congress last year that she had basically nothing to do with the torture techniques used on the Arab detainees, the torture memos reveal otherwise.

Yes, Queen of Torture's fingerprints are all over this, as well.

Then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice verbally OK'd the CIA's request to subject alleged al-Qaida terrorist Abu Zubaydah to waterboarding in July 2002, a decision memorialized a few days later in a secret memo that the Obama administration declassified last week.

Rice's role was detailed in a narrative released Wednesday by the Senate Intelligence Committee. It provides the most detailed timeline yet for how the CIA's harsh interrogation program was conceived and approved at the highest levels in the Bush White House.

The new timeline shows that Rice played a greater role than she admitted last fall in written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The narrative also shows that dissenting legal views about the severe interrogation methods were brushed aside repeatedly.

But even the new timeline has yet to resolve the central question of who inside the Bush administration first broached the idea of using waterboarding and other brutal tactics against terror detainees in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The Intelligence Committee's timeline comes a day after the Senate Armed Services Committee released an exhaustive report detailing direct links between the CIA's harsh interrogation program and abuses of prisoners at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in Afghanistan and at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

Watching Rachel Maddow interview Philip Zelikow, a top State Department lawyer under Condoleezza Rice, about his recent decision to go public about his 2005 memo showing that he seriously questioned the Bush adminstration's legal arguments for the use of torture, I couldn't help but think that was nothing more, and nothing less, than an attempt to cover his ass and that of former boss Rice, now that it looks like loyal Bushies might, um, go to jail over this matter. And tonight we find out why Condi has decided that she needs to go into serious CYA mode. The Washington Post has a new story up on its website showing that Rice played a key early role, much more so than previously known, in Bushco's approval of torture.

Everyone who had anything to do with torturing inside that Bush White House need to lawyer up.

Lastly, I agree with Joe Scarborough on morning joe, release all the memos. Right now the right wingers are stating that these torture techniques work, but in the end it did not. If these techniques worked, Usama Bin Laden would be in federal prison right now, and we all know that he is not. And Joe Scarborough, the issue is that torture is illegal and the Bush Administration broke the law here in the United States and internationally. The question is not to pick and choose what you may constitute as torture, in the end torture is that torture.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

All I can type is that what you see and hear is lack of EDUCATION. Levi was a train wreck. The boy, yes, boy is 18 years old and have not finished high school. This is a wake up call for young folk more than anything.

Levi Johnston also told King that he is not paying any child support to Bristol Palin right now. “I got everything my boy needs back home – diapers, toys, everything. Once we go to court, we’ll deal with that.”

The Palins did not appear on King’s show Wednesday night. “To be fair here, we have not heard from the Palins on this,” King said. “If they wish to contact us, we’ll, of course, give equal time,” the CNN anchor added.

Well, Shepard Smith is already being called a turn coat, by the right wingers, but in the end we honestly can not justify torturing and then turn around and take a high moral ground. That is hypocrisy and this is what the Bush Administration left us in the end.

"We want your constructive criticism, we want your feedback," said Clinton. "But President Obama won the election. He beat me in a primary, in which he put forth a different approach, and he is now our president. And we all want our president, no matter of which party, to succeed, especially in such a perilous time." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

And special video of Secretary Clinton giving Rep. Rohrabacher (R-CA) a cup of STFU when it comes to Dick Cheney

There is a reason that the Republicans did not want Eric Holder. There is also a reason why former Vice-President Dick Cheney practically begged former President George W. Bush to give pardons, even pre-pardons because we all knew it was going to come down to this.

What the Bush Administration did was TORTURE. The methods used that we have condemned across the international community. No wonder the international community looked at the Bush Administration as hypocrites, as they should have.

Folks, this is not going to be pretty and many twists and turns will be revealed. We will hate it, be shocked at some that knew about it and will continue to question ourselves about this. The bottom line is this, we, the American public was blatantly lied to by the Bush Administration. This administration put us in the peril we are in now, internationally. This was NEVER ABOUT PROTECTING AMERICA. This was some sick shit, period.

When you break the law, you must pay the price. This is the beginning and those of the Bush Administration need to lawyer up, because if you were a part of this, you will be hauled into court and it will all come out.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that he would "follow the law" as he weighed potential prosecutions of Bush administration officials who authorized controversial harsh interrogation techniques.

In Holder's first public comments on the issue since President Obama's statements on the matter Tuesday, the attorney general responded to questions briefly and cautiously.

"We are going to follow the evidence, follow the law and take that where it leads. No one is above the law," Holder said at an Earth Day event.

Some human rights groups have demanded that Holder appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the matter, but the attorney general appears to be in no hurry to decide how to proceed.

Obama said Tuesday that the attorney general would ultimately decide whether to proceed with prosecutions of those in the Bush administration who drew up the legal basis for aggressive interrogation techniques.

General Motors Corp. is planning to temporarily close most of its U.S. factories for up to nine weeks this summer because of slumping sales and growing inventories of unsold vehicles, two people briefed on the plan said Wednesday.

The exact dates of the closures were not known, but both people said they will occur around the normal two-week shutdown in July to change from one model year to the next. Neither person wanted to be identified because workers have not been told of the shutdowns.

GM spokesman Chris Lee would not comment other than to say the company notifies employees before making any production cuts public.

The automaker is living on $13.4 billion in government loans and faces a June 1 deadline to cut its debt, reduce labor costs and take other restructuring steps. If it doesn’t meet the deadline, the company’s CEO has said it will enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

United Auto Workers officials at several factories said they have meetings scheduled Thursday and Friday with plant managers and GM human resource officials to discuss production changes.

The automaker’s sales were down 49 percent in the first quarter compared with the same period last year, and GM had a 123-day supply of cars and trucks at the end of March, according to Ward’s AutoInfoBank. GM already has more than a six-month supply of several models.

Seperately, the troubled automaker said Wednesday it may miss a $1 billion bond payment due June 1 if it doesn’t complete a debt-for-equity exchange by then.

Yesterday, King Abdullah II of Jordan was in Washington, DC to start the Middle East peace process. Yes, Obama is continuing the "check mark" off the list.

Deepening his direct role in reviving stalled Middle East peace efforts, Mr Obama met King Abdullah on Tuesday and invited Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak for separate talks by early June.

The US president reassured King Abdullah of his commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict despite reluctance by Mr Netanyahu’s new right-leaning government to support the idea of eventual Palestinian statehood.

In contrast to the more hands-off policy of George W Bush, Mr Obama reasserted his pledge to “deeply engage” in Arab-Israeli peace diplomacy.

“What we have to do is step back from the abyss,” he told reporters after meeting the Jordanian king at the White House.

He said a “sense of urgency” was needed to resuscitate the peace process and said he expected “gestures of good faith” to be made in coming months.

“I agree that we can’t talk forever, that at some point steps have to be taken so that people can see progress on the ground. And that will be something that we will expect to take place in the coming months,” Mr Obama said.

He said he was a “strong supporter of a two-state solution”, adding: “I have articulated that publicly, and I will articulate that privately. And I think that there are a lot of Israelis who also believe in a two-state solution.”

Those who had anything to do with the signing off for torture, should be very scared right now.

Let me be clear. Barack Obama stood and still stands with what Rahm Emanuel said on the Sunday talk shows. He would prefer for us to move on past the Bush Administration, however traumatic and ill-advised that administration was. Obama is all about moving forward, but this country is founded on the law of the land and the moving on theme was always going to be a hard sell to the public for Obama.

There is a lot of anger out there towards the former Bush Administration. Anger on the Iraq War, Katrina, the politicized Justice Department, the money thrown away on Iraq and Afghanistan, the economy, the housing mess, China, and the list is endless. But what the Bush Administration did was torture and what they left us is repercussion worldwide.

Sure, I am all for moving on, but I am also for not ever letting this happen again. Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama was wrong for stating that no prosecution will be forthcoming dealing with torture. It is not Obama nor Emanuel's job to say what is going to be prosecuted in this country and what is not going to be, that is left to the United States Attorney General Eric Holder. Obama deserved the backlash from that blanket statement and the walkback is warranted.

The Team Bush brain trust that approved CIA torture techniques faces a roughing-up after President Obama reopened the possibility of investigation - and even prosecution.

Just five days after urging against "recrimination" for the George W. Bush-era torture of terror suspects, President Obama said Attorney General Eric Holder is free to probe the White House higher-ups who authorized the tough treatment.

I know Barack Obama is about consensus, but until we acknowledge and be forth right about what really happened, going forward is not going to be easy. The public deserves the right to know what happened. Transparency is one of the key reasons Barack Obama was elected and though he may not like the criminal road that we are about to walk down, we deserve the right to know what happened, but more importantly to be told the truth after being lied to for eight years.

In March, Michigan again reported the highest jobless rate, 12.6 percent. The states with the next highest rates were Oregon, 12.1 percent; South Carolina, 11.4 percent; California, 11.2 percent; North Carolina, 10.8 percent; Rhode Island, 10.5 percent; Nevada, 10.4 percent; and Indiana, 10.0 percent. Nine additional states and the District of Columbia recorded unemployment rates of at least 9.0 percent.

These numbers are not good, period. As, I have written about the auto industry and the Obama Administration to possibly just let it go bankrupt, I hope he is prepared for heavy criticism in this area. We are talking middle class here, we are talking working folk here, we are talking about the bulk of America here.

The President has just signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, joined by Senator Kennedy, President Bill Clinton, the Congressional leaders who supported the legislation, and countless others dedicated to passage of the bill at the SEED School, where service is a core part of the curriculum. Appropriately, the President announced a major call to service.

Watching morning joke and his sidekick Pat Buchanan on morning joe makes one shake their head.

Today, make excuses why a dose of torture is great?

Overall, pathetic.

Why does anyone think we are in the predicament we are in? Primarily because of these techniques which, overall, did not help us in the War on Terror.

Let's not make excuses for bad decisions by the Bush Administration. Starting at the top with George W. Bush on down to his lackey former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. These folks thought they were end all of be all, but at the end of the day they are standing with egg on their faces.

The Bush Administration former lap dogs should be worried about these torture memos out there, because they lied to the American public's face stating that we don't torture but the memos indicate otherwise. Furthermore, Obama vindicates the agents who were told to torture on the eve of him visiting the CIA. The CIA visit was reinforcement, that the regular joe at the CIA will not have to face any criminal charges, which I don't agree with, but the greater question is what about those who gave the order?

That question has not been answered, yet. And if Obama lets these clowns go scott free, he is going to have a tough time down the road.

So, you see why anyone who was involved in any torture, with any authority, should be worried about these memos out.

No wonder many wanted a pre-pardon from Bush. This story is far from over.

We can not save the innovation that put America on the map, the auto industry, but we can give more money to banks that put themselves in this predicament because of sheer greed? The same organizations that don't understand that bonuses in the millions to folks that put the economy where it is just is unacceptable, while American families are struggling partly because of their bad decision making?

Puh-leaze. No pity here.

Obama Administration trend very carefully here. If you want the auto industry to go bankrupt, you for damn sure better make sure some of these banks go down the drain, as well. If you don't, many middle class Americans won't get that picture, AT ALL.

Anxiety is growing again over the health of the nation's largest banks, and with Congress hesitant to commit more money, the Obama administration is exploring ways to strengthen them in the face of an unrelenting recession.

Results of the federal government's "stress tests" on big banks are due May 4, and Wall Street is increasingly worried they will show some banks are in worse shape than expected.

The renewed bank fears drove the stock market down on Monday in its worst showing in six weeks. Bank of America stock lost nearly a quarter of its value, and the Dow Jones industrial average fell almost 290 points.

Bank of America reported a first-quarter profit of $2.8 billion, joining other banks whose earnings reports have looked positive at first blush. But some analysts say accounting steps are concealing the depth of the financial industry's woes.

The banks have been helped by income from trading and cheap borrowing, but they are still struggling with bad debt, said Joe Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading LLC.

Investors are "looking at bank numbers and are saying they are not that great," he said.

Defending his brand of world politics, President Barack Obama said Sunday that he is "strengthening our hand" by reaching out to enemies of the United States and making sure that the nation is a leader, not a lecturer, of democracy.

Obama's foreign doctrine emerged across his four-day trip to Latin America, his first extended venture to a region of the world where resentment of U.S. power still lingers. He got a smile, handshakes and even a gift from incendiary leftist leader Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and embraced overtures of new relations from isolated Cuban President Raul Castro.

"The whole notion was that if we showed courtesy or opened up dialogue with governments that had previously been hostile to us, that that somehow would be a sign of weakness," Obama said, recalling his race for the White House and challenging his critics today.

"The American people didn't buy it," Obama said. "And there's a good reason the American people didn't buy it — because it doesn't make sense." read more here.....

Amazing, just amazing that folks like Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan can sit up on television and state that Obama is making the U.S. look weak. Shaking hands with Hugo Chavez is a gesture. Remember, George W. Bush said that he could look into Putin's sole and know he is a good man. See how far that got us? At least Obama did not make a stupid statement like that, but acted like a gracious politician that he is.

It is smarmy statements like this that did not help us fight the Iraq War, which bankrupted this country, don't believe it, ask our banker named, China. But the right winged talkers are exploding at the seams because of a handshake.

Concerned troll Buchanan states that Obama is being made a mockery of, accepting the anti-American book by Chavez. What does this mean? Absolutely, nothing. One thing we have learned is that Barack Obama is a gracious man, who is also a hard ball politician. Don't believe it? Ask Hillary Clinton or John McCain, whose dust was left on the election road by Obama. Taking a picture, shaking a hand, means nothing. But being in the room with persons of state who we have direct disagreement and starting dialogue is a beginning.

Concerned trolls Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan seem to have limited memory. Let me refresh it for you. Barack Obama campaigned on retaining our stature in the international arena, it means having conversation with those countries who may hate us. It was the "us against them" attitude that left the United States isolated in the War of Terror.

The former administration left an international mess, besides the domestic one, it is up to our new head of state to push forward the new policy of the United States of America. To say he is a mockery or failure and not even 100 days in is psycho talk, as Ed Schultz puts it.

I guess the only way that conservatives or so called conservatives can go forward is by the daily pounding of images they think they see, instead of being real about it. The Fox News of the world with Nazi images and comparing Obama as one is one of the main reasons that the Republican Party is on the outs right now in this country.

The same old spin, rinse, repeat is all the conservatives have right now.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

I had personal family business this weekend, just back from Tennessee with a new addition to our family. More on that tomorrow, now catching up on some much needed sleep. In the meantime, talk to you in the am.

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